leur

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French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French leur, from Old French lor, from Latin illōrum, genitive masculine plural of ille.

As a possessive it was originally uninflected (as still is Italian loro), but adopted the plural ending in Middle French. Feminine -e was hindered by the analogy of other possessives, all of which have but one plural form and in the case of notre, votre no gender agreement at all.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

leur m pl or f pl

  1. (personal, indirect) (to) them
    Je leur ai donné un coup de main.
    I gave them a hand.
French personal pronouns
Number Person Gender Nominative
(subject) 		Accusative
(direct complement) 		Dative
(indirect complement) 		Locative
(at) 		Genitive
(of) 		Disjunctive
(tonic)
Singular First — je, j’ me, m’ — — moi
Second — tu te, t’ — — toi
Third Masculine il le, l’ lui y en lui
Feminine elle la, l’ elle
Indeterminate on1 — — — — —
Reflexive — se, s’4 — — soi4
Plural First — nous nous — — nous
Second — vous2 vous2,3 — — vous2
Third Masculine ils3 les leur y en eux3
Feminine elles elles
1 Also used as the first person plural.
2 Also used as the polite singular form.
3 Also used when a group has both men and women.
4 Also used as third person plural reflexive.

Determiner

leur (plural leurs)

  1. their
    J’aperçois leur maison d’ici.
    I can see their house from here.

Derived terms

French possessive determiners
Possessee
singular plural
m f
Possessor singular 1st mon1 ma mes
2nd ton1 ta tes
3rd son1 sa ses
plural 1st notre nos
2nd votre2 vos2
3rd leur leurs
1 Also used before feminine adjectives and nouns beginning with a vowel or mute h.
2 Also used as the polite singular form.
For the singular persons there are gender-neutral neologisms man, tan, san. These are extremely rare.

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French lor.

Pronoun

leur

  1. (object pronoun) them

Descendants

  • French: leur
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